This award will support a software development effort that, in close liaison with major scientific communities, will expand the use and increase the effectiveness of a major scientific preprint archiving system, and focus on the design, implementation, and incorporation of new, innovative tools for electronic communication of research results. Moreover new archives will be made available to other communities. During the past two years a powerful new tool has been developed for exchange and processing of scientific information. The Theoretical Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory has developed and implemented an "e-Print Archive" system for the distribution, archiving, and searching of scientific preprints. Thus far, e-Print Archives have been set up for twelve scientific disciplines, and are rapidly becoming the primary means of information exchange in the communities they serve. The system has been operated as a community service in a "cottage industry" mode by the particle theory group at Los Alamos. The Principal Investigator on this proposal, Paul Ginsparg, has had essentially full responsibility for software/hardware maintenance as well as user support. Given its importance to the research communities it serves, the e-Print system project now needs long-term stability. Consequently, this award will allow it to be transferred to a team of computer personnel that will guarantee its reliability and development, and in particular to be put on a firm technical support basis.
